In Tyler We Trusted

If Tyler = me, then I = ???

Author's Note: Here it is! The final chapter! It's been such a ball ache, but I'm proud of this. This may end up not being the way you expected it to end, but hopefully you'll enjoy it all the same.

Dedicated to: Joel, ShaggyDiz, ayla, mr. crimson, Wandering Virus, Princess Pardy, emma, DougS, Heather Phillips, FreeThinker, Meg the Fierce Lady, Jenna D, Styx, Cali, Marla Singer, aurora manda, Min, Dusty, Jimbo Hicks, Monty, Danica, Gman, Green, Kacfrog711, Lioness Silence, Gene, Kappy, the immaculate Confection (Even though you called me deluded.), Dusty, SilverHawk, C.F. Ferret, Tonia Barone, PsychoKitty, MdnightRadio, Cherry cola lola, the guy who can't remember if you ordered blue or black pens, ebonyprincess and anyone else who has read and enjoyed this fic.

Tyler

"Now I'm not pretty and I'm not cool,

But I'm fat and I'm ugly and proud - so fuck you!

Standing out is the new pretension

Streamline the sicness, half-assed aggression

You gotta see it to believe it, we all got conned

All the mediocre sacred cows we spawned

Put your trust in the mission

We will not repent - this is our religion" Slipknot - "I am Hated"

Narrator

"Moving all around/ Screaming of the ups and downs

Pollution manifested in perpetual sound

The wheels go round and the sunset creeps past the

street lamps, chain-link and concrete

A little piece of paper with a picture drawn floats

on down the street till the wind is gone

The memory now is like the picture was then

When the paper's crumpled up it can't be perfect again" Linkin Park - "Forgotten"

People will always still ask if I know Tyler Durden.

This isn't surprising. After all, Tyler and I have been known to be in the same place at the same time. The reason for this fear in the first place is because two weeks ago while drinking in Starbuck's, I was tapped on the shoulder.

"Hello sir."

I turned and was greeted by an overly familiar face. Short, spiked, bleached hair. Piercing blue eyes. A nose that had been flattened to resemble a turd that had been stepped on. Ladies and gentle men, may I reintroduce good ole Angel Face. I literally fell out of my chair, spilling what was left of my Grande latte down my $36 dollar DKNY shirt.

"What are you...? I thought...?" I fumbled for the words,

"I know sir," Angel Face smiled, "There's a restraining order. We have all been given one."

"Go away! Tyler isn't here. Tyler's gone."

The last time I said something like that was on Paper Street when Marla had come to see me. I remember the confused look in her face and I expected that same expression on Angel Face's face, but no.

"I know sir. I heard everything and I've read the papers. It's just..." He began to look embarrassed, "Do you think he'll ever come back?"

I stared at him for about a minute and then I turned and stormed out of the coffee bar. This little episode scared me. If Angel Face was out and asking questions, how long after the movie is released will it be before people begin to twig who I am/was?

Right now though that's the least of my worries because as we speak, the aforementioned dictator has his meaty hand wrapped my throat and has forced me against a wall.

"Does that sound like a good plan to you?" he asks,

"Fuck you!" I say spraying blood onto his face,

"You probably need time to think. So, how about a flashback?"

And in a weird way Tyler's right. I do need time to think. So, flashback it is...

I had been free of Tyler for three months. Ever since he had "died" in my hotel room in LA. In that three months I had moved back into my new apartment and taken my share of the cheque given to Marla and I by David. It hadn't been as much as Marla had been led to believe. Only $50,000 as opposed to the one million dollars she had raved about. Not once did Tyler enter my head.

I am Jack's blissful ignorance.

So I've got my money. I've got my apartment and I've got Marla.

Ah, yes, Marla.

Everything always boils down to Marla, doesn't it? Like some crucible in whore's clothing. However, where would I be without her? She's cared for me in a way that Tyler never did. Tyler never loved me. Not that I care! Really!

Anyway, carrying on quickly, Marla bursted into my bedroom as my neon red alarm clock from IKEA flashed up 5:30. She woke me up from a dream I was having where I was fighting Patrick Bateman. Y'know, the serial killer. He use to be a client when I was younger. So, Marla bursts in, having let herself in using the spare key I had given her. To be used only in the cases of emergencies, I reminded her.

"This is an emergency!" Marla exclaimed, "i know a way you can get more money?"

"Me more money?" I asked dubiously,

"Okay, okay. Me more money!"

Marla admitted to me, as soon as I got back from LA, that she had spent all her share of the money on an investment that had turned bad. In the five months I was gone, she had knocked up an impressive debt of $70,000. She only had $20,000 left to pay off. It was Marla's fault that she had lost all her money, but she had been so helpful to me that I said, "What is it?".

"You make a few guest appearances at the self help groups."

"No way! Not a chance! Count me out!" I said sitting up,

Marla sat on the bed and edged her way up to me.

"Oh come on! I know for a fact that the 'me and me equals three' group are willing to pay $2000 for one nights appearance. Then after we've done the self-help groups, you could release a book and we could do the chat shows again."

I suddenly became very aware that Marla was naked and rubbing my inner thigh.

"Look I'LL think about it." I said throwing her arm away and turning onto my side, "Good night, Marla!"

Marla didn't leave. She didn't move. She stayed sat on the bed and wedged her hand, again, between my legs. I lay there in a cold sweat for ten minutes as she began to knead my balls. Finally, as I faked snoring noises, I felt her Marlboro breath next to my ear and she whispered my name.

"What??" I stressed, "What do you want?"

"Please, it's been so long!" She moaned,

"Marla, we never did it! You slept with Tyler a thousand times!" I'd counted. "However, we have never had sex."

"But, I want to sleep with you." she said as she kissed my neck,

"Why?"

I couldn't understand it. Why would she want to sleep with me?

"Because you're lonely and I'm lonely and.... Well, dammit, I just want to."

She spoke with the same intensity Tyler used when he was thinking of a new plan and wanted me to join in. Finally after half an hour I gave in. Guess I WAS lonely like Marla said. The experience was pleasurable, but the strange thing was that for the last few minutes, I thought of Tyler. Don't ask!

The next evening, Marla dragged me down to a self help group for people who suffer from multiple personality disorder. The group, entitled "Me, Myself and I", consisted of ten people all suffering from the same condition I did. Except without the need to blow up federal buildings. So, I'm stood there talking about my experiences and my first meeting with Tyler. I had been talking for twenty minutes when something unusual happened.

Have you ever heard someone shout your name through a train tunnel? Have you noticed that haunting way your name bounces from wall to wall? Each vowel and consonant repeated over and over infinitely. That was what I was hearing in my head. Marla, who had been sat next to me, grabbed my arm.

"Are you okay?" she murmured concerned,

She wasn't the only one. The congregation in front of me were looking at me as if I were spurting blood from my anus like a fountain.

"I-I..."

The voice in my head was growing louder and clearer.

"I-I'm..."

L

O

U

D

E

R

!

"Marla, please..."

C

L

E

A

R

E

R

!

"What's wrong?! Tell me!" Marla said,

"Jesus! The guy's okay. Leave him alone"

Like with the man on the plane, this was not my voice. I didn't dare look to the right of me. I took a deep breath and "smiled". Well, I curled my lips at least.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'D like to introduce you to Tyler Durden."

"Hi. How's it going, ya nut bars?" Tyler waved at the crowd,

At first, the group seemed disturbed, but then one by one they stood up and applauded. Marla stared at me ad I stared back while Tyler bowed and spouted insults to the crowd. Something along the resemblance of tears were forming in her eyes.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't think I needed to."

Marla upped and ran out of the room. I called after her to wait, but she disappeared in a cloud of cigarette smoke. The whole time the crowd were still cheering. It was like they were at a concert.

"Fucking let her go!" Tyler said grabbing my shoulder,

I threw his hand off me and turned to face him.

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

The crowd died down and returned to their seats. They were obviously expected some kind of show. Especially, considering the guy in front of them who claimed to have over come MPD was talking into two different voices.

"Is that the kind of welcome I get after four months apart?"

"Tyler..."..."

"Hey, let me finish." Tyler snapped, "you and I need to talk downstairs. The basement."

Then, like Marla, he left the room. He only turned once and stared at the group.

"Nice fans you got there." he smirked,

After two minutes of silence, I mumbled an apology to the group and left.

The basement is really not a pronoun I'D use to describe the room where I was to meet Tyler. A basement gives off the impression that it holds things like old lamp shades and boxes of comic books and other such shit. This room was bare. The janitor of the building obviously having given up on the idea of actually storing anything in here. The basement now only held a single light bulb, a hard concrete floor and crumbling brick walls. I walked down the wooden steps to the bottom one at a time.

"Tyler?"

I couldn't see him anywhere. Then, finally, when I had reached the bottom step he jumped me. Clearly, he'd been following me as I left the meeting room. Picking myself up, I heard Tyler laughing as I wiped the grit from my eyes.

"Too slow there, Ikea boy." He smirked, "you use to be so much more quicker then that."

"Thank you for that pointer, Kato." I pulled a cigarette out and lit up, "Why are you here? I thought I'd..."

"Thought you'd pushed me back to the hidden caverns of your Mind!" Tyler yelled,

Tyler grabbed the cigarette out of my mouth and made himself comfortable on the wooden steps.

"You thought you'd got rid of me. Please!" He laughed venomously, "You're never gonna get rid of me. Christ, you need me!"

Here we go! Back to that broken record.

"Need you? Tyler it's not like I love you."

There was a brief silence from Tyler. His face appeared to drop and if I didn't know any better I'D say he was disappointed by my comment. Finally, he laughed.

"Love?! No one mentioned love. What are you? A fucking faggot?" he said standing up and flicking the cigarette over into the corner, "In fact, you know what? Fuck this bullshit!"

He launched a fist straight at my face. I crumpled to the ground, holding my nose. Tyler began to kick me around the room.

"I was gonna talk to you." Kick. "I was gonna come to some sort of agreement with you." Kick "I was gonna share this body with you."

"Like timeshare?" I spluttered,

"Yeah!" Kick! Kick! KICK! "but, instead, fuck it! How about this? I beat you fucking senseless, put you in a coma and I take over."

Tyler picked me up by the scruff of my neck and slammed me into a wall.

"Does that sound like a good plan to you?" he asks,

"Fuck you!" I say spraying blood onto his face,

"You probably need time to think. So, how about a flashback?"

I think this is the point at which we came in.

"So, it is." Tyler replies, "Your answer please."

"Um, I'm still gonna have to go with..." I croaked, "Fuck you!"

Tyler launched another assault into my stomach. However, this time I began to defend myself and throwing a punch I clipped him in the ear. De ja vu.

"That's it!" Tyler said clutching his ear, "Come on! Fight me! Join me!"

I leapt at Tyler and we began to scramble across the floor. There use to a beauty to our fights. The sound of flesh slapping flesh. Now, it was a case of every man for himself. That sort of primal scream that made you feel like a god. I grabbed Tyler's head and began to slam it against the floor. Blood sprayed up in the air. Suddenly the door to the basement opened and Marla appeared in the doorway.

"What the fuck is going on here?" She screamed,

"Marla, baby!" Tyler shouted as he got on top of me and punched me in the kidneys, "I'll be with you in a second."

"Marla!" I screamed, "Help me!"

Marla ran down the steps.

"What do you want her to do?" Tyler smiled "Pull me off you. She can't fucking see me, Nimrod!"

"He's got a point." Marla said.

"Marla, knock me out."

"With what?!

"Your shoe... Something... I don't know."

Tyler stopped punching and looked at me.

"Dick! I want you to get knocked out." he sneered

"no, you want me to believe you've won! I want you to believe that we're both getting knocked out."

"Huh?"

And with that Marla began to pound Tyler in the head with her shoe. It took two hits before we were plunged into darkness.

When I woke up I was in a cell. The same kind of cell I use to be in when I was locked up. Except this one was completely red. Over in the corner I saw Tyler sat on a bed in a red straight jacket. He looked so much older then I use to believe him to be.

"Tyler..."..."

"It's my own fault really." Tyler interrupted, "i raised you and taught you not to fall into a dictatorship. So, what do I go and do. I try to rule your life. I'm a one man idiot."

I sat next to Tyler. For the first time I felt compassion for him.

"We're forty in four years time." he continued, "For-ty! I don't think I can continue all this crap. Hence those melodramatics before. Just call it one last bid for freedom."

"Tyler..." where are we?"

"We're nowhere. This is what, I assume, you expect me to stay locked in for the rest of your life." He smiled and began to sing, "Come see my cage, built in my grain."

"Tyler...", it never had to be like this." I put my arm around him, "You've shown me a lot. I got scared of you that's all. It was me that made you this monster. Maybe I wanted to wake myself up and realise that you didn't exist."

Tyler winced at that last word. I understood. Tyler had spent his entire life believing he was real. True, he didn't exist to anybody else but me. Yet, the fact that he had some sort of existence, no matter how small, made him real. He wasn't rising from the grave. I was making him come back. I wanted him to come back. It was pissing him off as much as it pissed me off. Suddenly, I could hear Marla calling out my name. It was distant, but it was there. Tyler looked up at me and smiled.

"You better go."

"What about you?"

"The better man won. That's the belief you distilled in me. If you don't believe in me then I'm nothing. All I ask is that you don't try and bring me back. I can't be fucked anymore."

We both smiled. I pulled Tyler close to me.

"I'll miss you." I said,

"No! You won't." Tyler said sternly, "Otherwise, you'll bring me back, like some puppet out of a closet."

It hit me again. How Tyler never controlled me! I controlled him.

"I'm sorry." I said,

"Leave it."

I stroked my hand across his face. I felt the roughness of his stubble and dents of his pores. At that moment, he was the most beautiful person I had ever met. I leaned in and kissed him gently on the lips. Tyler flinched slightly and then relaxed. The kiss became long and deep. It reminded me of those first kisses you had with your girlfriend, when you couldn't decide which way your lips should go. Finally, I pulled away as I heard Marla's voice again.

"Go." was all Tyler said,

I walked up to the cell door and took once last glimpse of Tyler. Part of me was gonna miss him, but not enough to bring him back and fuck him around. As Tyler began to sing his little song, I opened the cell door and left.

"Come see my cage, built-in migraine. Keeping myself alive through your empathy."

Marla stood over my body, prodding me with her shoe. Slowly, I stirred and opened my eyes.

"I thought I'd lost you there." she cried, helping me to my feet,

"So did I."

"Tyler?"

I placed my finger onto her lips. "Shh! Tyler doesn't exist."

Marla smiled and hugged me. Suddenly, it seemed like the right thing to say...

"Marla, move in with me!"

"Wha'?"

"Move in with me. You're not gonna be able to afford the rent on your place anymore. Move in with me and help keep Tyler away. Please, I lo..." I tailed off.

"Were you just about to say you love me?" Marla said

"I have no fucking idea." I laughed,

"Nor do I."

We both lit up a cigarette and that was that. Marla moved in with me. Neither of us know where this will lead. At the moment we just enjoy each other's company. The movie came out last month to critical acclaim. So much so, that the cartoon series comes out next week on Fox, "The Further Adventures of Tyler Durden". Tyler would be so proud. The only strange thing that's happened since that night in the basement, is that I keep having this strange dream. In that dream, I'm back in my cell and there are two guys looking at me. One is my doctor and the other is an orderly. They ask me questions which I refuse to answer or maybe I can't. Then they feed me a couple of pills and begin to walk out of the room.

"He's never gonna come out of that state." The doctor says, "Tell Miss Singer the bad news that there's been no change."

"Well, there has slightly." The orderly says as they leave the room, "He's smiling now."

"Wouldn't you smile too? He's happy now, he's in his own world."

And they leave.

And the doctor in my dream is right. I am happy and in my own world.

I'm in a world with Tyler Durden.

THE END

Tyler

"In the memory you'll find me,

Eyes burning up,

The darkness holding me tightly,

Until the sun rises up" Linkin Park - "Forgotten"

Narrator

"Gently, my mind escapes into the relaxing

world of pleasure, a pleasure that'll take

my mind off the reality of my life,

My past life... life as I know it now,

And whatever may come, it slowly

disappears to somewhere in the back

of my mind. It will remain there

until I wish to retrieve it.

Yes, I will stay here for awhile,

for I need the break. A break from the

pressures of life, and everything

that lays in the palm of life's hands.

This mode is incredible. It's out of

this world. Too bad I must always leave it...

...but that's life." Slipknot - "Gently"

Tyler's cell song taken from Slipknot's "Skin ticket".

That's it all done. That has been the most ambitious fan fic I've done. To appreciate more, I suggest you listen to the tracks I've mentioned at the beginning of each chapter. Think of it as a soundtrack. If you can't track them down then listen to the Fight Club Soundtrack. Works just as well. Anyway, I've got to go now while I try and work out what other movie or book I can fuck with.